Integrated control systems and methods
OwnerMark Rolfesinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Integrated software systems and methods that can control the design, emulation, testing and production activities of a conveyor based system. In embodiments, the control system implements an object-oriented like environment into a PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) system and uses its software to define and control the operation of the PLC dynamically from a computer. In other embodiments, a hot backup method allows the conveyor system to continue to function on failure of one or more PLCs.
Claims15
A control system for a conveyor system, comprising:
- a data store that maintains configuration data that describes a configuration of the conveyor system;
- a design component configured to enable a user to design a layout and the configuration for the conveyor system, wherein the configuration data includes one or more devices of the conveyor system and relationships between the one or more devices;
- and
- a test component that includes a PLC emulator configured to run standardized PLC logic capable of interpreting the configuration data to emulate one or more PLCs in the conveyor system, wherein the one or more PLCs in the conveyor system are encoded with the standardized PLC logic and the configuration data is downloaded to the one or more PLCs in the conveyor system to operate the conveyor system.
An integrated control system for design and test of a conveyor system, comprising:
- a design component configured to generate configuration data that defines the conveyor system, wherein the configuration data and is downloaded to memory structures in one or more PLCs of the conveyor system and the one or more PLCs are encoded with a procedural PLC logic configured to read the configuration data from the memory structures to operate the conveyor system;
- a test component that emulates the one or more PLCs of the conveyor system based upon the configuration data and the procedural PLC logic;
- and
- an interface component that facilitates user visualization and design of the conveyor system.
A method for design, test and control of a conveyor system, comprising:
- creating design data using an integrated design and test system, wherein the design data defines a conveyor system configuration;
- testing the conveyor system configuration using a PLC emulator of the integrated design and test system, the PLC emulator is encoded with PLC logic and interprets the design data;
- and
- implementing the conveyor system by downloading the design data to conveyor system PLCs, wherein the conveyor system PLCs are encoded with the PLC logic capable of operating for multiple configurations and utilizing the design data for the conveyor system configuration.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.